Double Bass SPIROCORES ARE SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!

[Sam Dingle]

Hi guys. I am wondering if I should switch to 4/4 Spiro. The vibrating length on my bass is 108 cm so the material is coming down onto the nut. Does anyone else use 4/4 Spiro?

4/4 spirocores are standard over here in the states. You have to special order the sets made specifically for 3/4 strings. I tried the 3/4 mediums for about a week and remember them being tight. the 4/4's feel good on my bass. I suggest trying them. I've got a set of weich and mediums for sale right now....

 

[Scott Lynch]

Hi guys. I am wondering if I should switch to 4/4 Spiro. The vibrating length on my bass is 108 cm so the material is coming down onto the nut. Does anyone else use 4/4 Spiro?

Spiro 4/4, otherwise known as S42, are by and large the most common type of Spirocore, for both 3/4 and 4/4 size basses. I use 4/4 Spiros on my 3/4 bass with a ~105 cm mensure.

Given that some of the peg end silks are landing on the nut (or past it?) I'd definitely say go for the 4/4 Spiros.

 

[Jason Sypher]

For some reason I find myself revisiting my old threads with the occasional horror of viewing my younger self. I will say that I kept with the Spiros and still think they are the best string out there. I had some Evahs on my American Standard but switched to spiros. I bought some solo strings, spiros. I still think guts are the most glorious jazz string ever made but I am never playing four on the floor jazz anymore, kind of a bummer. I'm not so convinced of my earlier convictions that gut are fuzzy or somehow less in tune than steels although I understand that it can be the perception to some players, particularly players of other instruments when trying to blend with them. I wonder about those gut stalwards from years ago, you guys stay with them?

 

[DoubleMIDI]

Hi guys. I am wondering if I should switch to 4/4 Spiro. The vibrating length on my bass is 108 cm so the material is coming down onto the nut. Does anyone else use 4/4 Spiro?

I had used Spiro Mittel 4/4 on a 110 cm scale. These were the old ones. Too much tension for me but maybe because of a high action.
Spiro Weich 4/4 (probably the newer ones) were fine.

If you used 3/4 Spiros until now and feel the tension is a bit high (and your string height is OK) you might want to try 4/4 Spiros.
But before you buy, tune down the bass by a halftone and play. That would roughly be the feel of the 4/4 strings on pitch.

 

[Thomas88]

Thanks .I see where I have been going wrong all these years! Always going back to Spiro for the a nd e

 

[marcox]

I love my Spiro Mittels. I am curious as to when they will need to be replaced seeing as they still sound great after a year of heavy use. I used to have synthetic Guts on my old bass and didn't realize how much I disliked them until I switched to Spiros.

Hey Josh! The 10-year-old Spiros on my bass still sound good to me. And I'm not alone:
Time for a Dead Spiros Club

 

[HateyMcAmp]

I finally tried a set of (4/4, S43) Spiro Solos on my Shen SB80. So far, I like them a lot, way more than any other steel string I’ve tried. They remind me a lot of how Velvet Blue felt on this bass. Soft, but not floppy by any means. I know they’re thin, but they honestly don’t feel very different than any other steel gauge to me, being a gut / nylon / Velvet guy. They are way darker than the Sprio weichs / Helicore Hybrids I’ve used in the past, but still sound clear, punchy, and have some sustain on my bass. No mwah. Not dead sounding like orchestral strings. Easy on the hands. I hope they last forever and I never change strings again.

 

[SteIIa]

Hey all. I bought a used 21 year old Strunal starter ply bass and it came with some strings that hadn't been changed in over 15 years. First thing I did was buy a set of Spiro Weichs and they sound pretty great (aside from some buzzing that I need a luthier to take care of eventually). Made my bass come alive!

What's the difference between Sipro Weich and Mittel? Is it harder to play? Mittel sounds fuller because of higher tension? I'm 90/10 pizz/arco. I'm pretty new to the DB world so forgive my ignorance.

 

[Francois Blais]

Weich = soft = light gauge
Mittel = medium = regular gauge

 

[Scott Lynch]

Hey all. I bought a used 21 year old Strunal starter ply bass and it came with some strings that hadn't been changed in over 15 years. First thing I did was buy a set of Spiro Weichs and they sound pretty great (aside from some buzzing that I need a luthier to take care of eventually). Made my bass come alive!

What's the difference between Sipro Weich and Mittel? Is it harder to play? Mittel sounds fuller because of higher tension? I'm 90/10 pizz/arco. I'm pretty new to the DB world so forgive my ignorance.

On my bass, Spiro Mitts (4/4s) were quite a bit louder, and also brighter and more sustaining. I definitely got the characteristic growly pizz sound with them. The E (especially) and A string bowed ok but I did not like the D and G at all under the stick, even when broken in.

Spiro Weichs (4/4s) still had quite a bit of the characteristic Spiro sound but were softer, and also a little bit darker and less sustaining than the Mitts. Playability was noticeably easier than the Mitts, both pizz and especially arco. I found these strings quite tolerable under the bow as well.

The only way to know the difference is to try them both on your bass. Depending on how your bass is constructed or set up, your results could differ from mine.

 

[Sean Riddle]

My Spirocore Weichs have been on my bass for a week now and I’m totally perplexed why I haven’t had a full set sooner? They are seriously wonderful strings and so many people have been commenting on the clarity they now get from my tone. The E and A I used for like 3 months last year, so they’re kind of broken in’ish, and the D and G are brand new, but really not overly bright and nasally. They’re super easy to bow and sound great in the chamber group I play in (it also helps that my two other section mates have Spiro’s too). After using Velvet Anima’s for almost year and practicing and playing a lot of arco on them, Spiro’s are a dream to bow now and I don’t really get why people don’t like them arco? Pizzicato is incredible. The amount of low end and clarity these strings produce is incredible, and they’re very nice to your hands. It’s great to have each note come out crystal clear in the groups I play in. And they are perfect for extended techniques, probably the best set I’ve played for that purpose (figures because Bert Turetzky and Mark Dresser use them). All in all, I’m happy that I finally embraced a full set of these after 5 years of playing. Probably the only string I’m interested in trying is a polychrome D and G, obviously paired with Spirocores on the bottom.

 

[Josh Kneisel]

My Spirocore Weichs have been on my bass for a week now and I’m totally perplexed why I haven’t had a full set sooner? They are seriously wonderful strings and so many people have been commenting on the clarity they now get from my tone. The E and A I used for like 3 months last year, so they’re kind of broken in’ish, and the D and G are brand new, but really not overly bright and nasally. They’re super easy to bow and sound great in the chamber group I play in (it also helps that my two other section mates have Spiro’s too). After using Velvet Anima’s for almost year and practicing and playing a lot of arco on them, Spiro’s are a dream to bow now and I don’t really get why people don’t like them arco? Pizzicato is incredible. The amount of low end and clarity these strings produce is incredible, and they’re very nice to your hands. It’s great to have each note come out crystal clear in the groups I play in. And they are perfect for extended techniques, probably the best set I’ve played for that purpose (figures because Bert Turetzky and Mark Dresser use them). All in all, I’m happy that I finally embraced a full set of these after 5 years of playing. Probably the only string I’m interested in trying is a polychrome D and G, obviously paired with Spirocores on the bottom.

I also love Spiros. I am mostly a pizz player, but I do play a bit of arco here and there and as I understand it some feel as if it's hard to bow them without them being a bit "scratchy". I haven't had too much issue with this, but as I said I am 90 percent playing pizz

 

[Sean Riddle]

I also love Spiros. I am mostly a pizz player, but I do play a bit of arco here and there and as I understand it some feel as if it's hard to bow them without them being a bit "scratchy". I haven't had too much issue with this, but as I said I am 90 percent playing pizz

It’s definitely a matter of practice I’m realizing. Being in this chamber orchestra at my school right now has motivated me to keep my arco chops and having Spiro’s on my bass does add a little extra motivation to practice more arco so I can get these strings sounding good with the bow. If I was aiming to focus more on chamber music, orchestral playing etc, I wouldn’t have the Spiro’s in my bass right now. But for what I do at the moment, they’re really what I need.

 

[Reiska]

Content warning: Gut strings, mixing strings.

I decided to stop banging my head to the wall and switched to Spiro weichs instead of Evah weichs for my E and A, under plain guts. Honestly, I like Evahs, Garbos etc pizz tone better, but the Spiros play like no other, pizz and especially arco. There has allways been some issue with other strings, weird unbalanced tension of Evahs, finger- and fingerboard eating winding of Velvets, hard to bow, hard to play clean / fast pizz on the E, fragility, whathaveyou. I love the idea of my strings having all the information I`m after in them, the rest is about the time those strings spend on my bass and settle in and especially the time I spend playing and learning to get that information out.

For me, Spiros aren`t the best sounding strings, but they bring the best out of me and my bass. There`s also this cool yingy-yangy-thingy going on between the guts and Spiros, as the lower Spiros makes the guts sound clear and rich, and the guts bring complexity to the tone of Spiros.

 

[Sam Dingle]

As long as we are on the Spiro love train I'm enjoying mine a lot. 10ish months old and they just broke the other day in terms of sound. I figured out the right balance for the bow in terms of rosin and pressure/speed. They sound just like warm arco strings when I play arco with only scratchyness when the bow hand gets lazy. But the pizz growl is still there. Not sure what happened. Seriously now all I can do is blame myself for how it sounds.

To compare there is always the "it's you not the strings" idea but I'm working on orchestra rep, specifically the trio section to Beethovens 5th and it was very bright and scratchy a few months ago. Switching to my teachers bass (and bow) with belcantos fixed that. Now the spiros are broken in enough to where it is much easier.

Plus they are solid and reliable. I picked up a golden spiral G to try but then got the call to run the house band Friday's and Saturday's at a hotel bar. It's outside most of the time unless the weather is really bad so I don't want to even think about tuning a gut string in that weather. Spiros it is!

 

[bassfiddlesteve]

Here’s a brief iPhone recording of my carved E.H.Roth with eight month old Spirocore 3/4 lights. I did have to go through a couple of E strings before I found one that wasn’t dead sounding in comparison to the rest of the set.



- Steve

 

[Sam Dingle]

Those sound great. Love that spiro sustain.

 

[Sean Riddle]

I'm on a month now with the full set and can fully agree Spiro's are so much fun. I just recorded on my school's annual album and my bass sounded wonderful in the rough mix. Can't wait to hear what they sound like when the album is released. Chamber and new music has been a blast with these strings. They project well, articulate well, and the tonal palate is superb. I'm glad I finally got a full set.

 

[sean_on_bass]

Just got my set of Weichs today(sooner than expected from Golihur) and slapped them on the bass. Initial thoughts after maybe 45 minutes of play and compared to the Helicore Hybrid Lights i had prior:

-Loving the pizz tone, can hear the note i am playing much better and my intonation seems to have improved slightly as a result
-They feel much lighter under the hands compared to the Helicores, which i actually thought they would be more equal so pleasantly surprised with more ease of play
-They start with the bow much easier than the Helicores, again much to my delight as i thought they would be possibly harder to bow
-I can hear the "scratchy" arco that people describe, but i like it and really just see it as accentuating more/different harmonics then the Helicores were
-I don't necessarily feel they are louder then the Helicore set, but at the same time the ease of hearing the tone of the note creates a cut through effect. Again, the clarity of tone is much better with the Spiros
-I'm getting a buzzing on the open G, but i think i wound the string to close to peg box side and will try to rewind it

Overall, i like em alot. Almost immediately, new things are coming out of my playing with them so the tone is somewhat inspiring to play with. Looking forward to seeing how they age!

 

[DoubleMIDI]

You might need to put something (cardboard or similar thinkness) between G string and nut to get rid of the open string buzz. If this doesn't help there is a bump in the fingerboard. Better let a luthier correct that before you might ruin the fingerboard by doing it wrong.